When I conduct a wedding, I like to bring along some of my camera gear and took some photos. Not in the middle of the ceremony while I am marrying the couple, you understand, but before and after the service, and at the reception.
When I came to check the photos on the computer after one wedding, I was happy with some and unhappy with others. Nothing unusual in that, you might think.
But then I noticed that all the photos I thought were substandard had been taken with the same lens. They just weren’t sharp. And that was crazy, because it was one of my sharpest lenses.
Then I realised. That lens had needed cleaning, and I hadn’t done that before the ceremony. All the other lenses I used that day were clean.
So I cleaned the lens, and all the photos I have made with it since have been every bit as clear and sharp as I would expect.
Johnny Nash sang ‘I Can See Clearly Now’, and I believe the Resurrection, being the most stunning work of God since creation, is a time when we can see God more clearly now. Our lenses are cleaned, the rain is gone, and God comes into vision ever more vividly. That’s even true in Luke 24:1-12, where the disciples are still tentative and haven’t yet come to a full Easter faith.
So in what ways do we see God more clearly at the Resurrection? Here are three.
Firstly, we see God’s Work more clearly.
The women arrive at the tomb early in the morning and the miracle has already happened. This fits with an Old Testament theme ‘in which the action of God comes to light following the hours of darkness’[1]. When the Israelites are trapped at the Red Sea and the Egyptian army is pursuing them, we read that
During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. (Exodus 14:24)
On an occasion when Israel was under siege from Assyria, we read this:
That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning – there were all the dead bodies! (2 Kings 19:35)
God does his work of deliverance in the darkest and coldest times, and it comes to light at dawn. The same happens at the Resurrection.
I wonder whether that makes any connections for you? In these last few days of Holy Week, we’ve had the darkness of Judas Iscariot scuttling off from the Last Supper to earn his thirty pieces of silver. We’ve had the darkness of Gethsemane, in Jesus’ anguished prayer and then that betrayal by Judas. We’ve had the Cross itself, where for three hours the land is covered in darkness in the middle of the day. And we might think that only evil is at work. We might even think that evil has triumphed. But that isn’t true. God is at work. Redemption is coming.
I wonder whether we are prone to thinking that when all seems dark, God is not at work. When everything is going wrong, we are tempted to think that God is absent. When life is not going as it should, has God abdicated from the throne of the universe?
Not a bit of it! The Resurrection declares to us that God is at work to bring salvation and freedom even in the darkness, and even though we may only see the signs of his work when the light comes again. God is still continuing with his quiet revolution, rolling stones away and raising bodies under cover of darkness.
There will be some of us here today who are going through dark times. We shall be tempted to think that God is not on the case. But I tell you that he is. Invisible to our sight in the darkness, God is preparing to turn our worlds upside-down. He calls us to wait for the dawn, when we shall finally see what conspiracies of hope he has been plotting and executing.
So let the Resurrection give us increased insight into the work of God, even in the darkness.
Secondly, we see God’s Words more clearly.
The two men (whom I take to be angels) say to the women,
‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 “The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”’ 8 Then they remembered his words.
So Jesus had promised his resurrection on at least three occasions to his disciples, but it just hadn’t sunk in. They couldn’t grasp it. Such a prophecy didn’t fit in with their existing understanding of faith and life, and so either they dismissed it or it just didn’t register. They believed that the resurrection of the dead would only happen at the end of time (as it will for everyone except Jesus) and so the words of Jesus just didn’t get through. As a result, they denied themselves the hope they would have had even when Jesus was crucified.
The Resurrection, then, is the greatest case of ‘Told you so!’ in history!
And what is it like when a human being says, ‘Told you so!’ to us? They usually tell us with some vigour that we should have listened to them in the first time. If we are humble, we may reflect on that, regret not listening to them, and wonder what it might have been like had we accepted their word. None of this seems to apply, however, if the person concerned is our spouse.
The ‘Told you so!’ of the Resurrection, though it is said with far greater grace than we mere mortals say it, makes the case for us going back on all the teaching and the promises of Jesus. How many of them just don’t seem to fit into our preconceived ideas or the popular values of our culture? Love your enemies? Well, OK, just so long as they don’t take the opposite view on Donald Trump from me. Forgive seventy times seven? But shouldn’t people get what they deserve? Yet if we are called to forgive seventy times seven, how much more does God forgive us? Give to the poor? They should get a job!
Yes, the words of Jesus certainly rub our culture up the wrong way. It’s tempting not to hear them, or to explain them away. But the Resurrection shows that it’s the words of Jesus that will come true. It’s his teaching that is eternal. It’s his promises that will stand for all time, not the promises of the advertisers or the politicians.
This Easter, then, let’s return to the words of Jesus with renewed confidence and renewed commitment. Truly, he has the words of eternal life.
Thirdly and finally, we see God’s Witnesses more clearly.
I’m referring here to the women, the first witnesses to the Resurrection. It’s a common point to make that if you were going to invent the story of the Resurrection, you wouldn’t have made your first and most important witnesses women. Generally speaking, women were not accepted as witnesses in Jewish courts of law two thousand years ago. You can sense the disparaging attitude that the male disciples had with Luke’s comment in verse 11:
11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Yet the gospel writers all tell us that women were the first to find the tomb empty. This becomes testimony to the veracity and honesty of the gospel accounts.
Now that’s all well and good, but I’d like to take that familiar point further forward. Here’s my point: if God can choose unlikely people to be the first witnesses to the Resurrection of his Son, does this not show that he can continue to pick people who are unlikely candidates to be his witnesses? I think he can.
There are many ways in which Christians like us think we are disqualified to be witnesses to the risen Jesus. We may say that we are not a trained religious professional, with all the appropriate academic knowledge. But Jesus didn’t seem too bothered when he called fishermen who had not been chosen by other rabbis to be his disciples.
We may say that we have disqualified ourselves by sin, but how many of Jesus’ original disciples stayed at the Cross? Simon Peter disowned Jesus three times publicly, and doubtless many of the others effectively did the same. Yet Jesus chooses these people to carry the message of his kingdom into the ancient world after his Resurrection and Ascension.
We may say that we lack the necessary confidence, but God chose Moses, who didn’t know how to speak in public, and Gideon, who wanted to hide. They were unlikely witnesses, too.
So who, then, do count as God’s witnesses? There’s a telling story early in the book of Acts, chapter 4. Peter and John have been hauled before the religious bigwigs for having preached the resurrection following the healing of the man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. After Peter speaks defiantly to these leaders, Luke notes this:
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)
‘Unschooled, ordinary men’ – or, if translated a little over-literally, ‘ungrammatical idiots’. But the difference was not their education, it was ‘that these men had been with Jesus’.
That’s the qualification. Not alphabet soup after your surname but being with Jesus. Not a charismatic personality but being with Jesus. Not a perfect life but one lived with Jesus.
Sure, some people will not take seriously out witness to the fact that Jesus is alive. If even the male disciples thought the women’s words were nonsense, then we can be sure that some people outside of our faith will certainly think that what we testify to is ridiculous.
But from time to time we will find a Peter. His curiosity was triggered by the witness of the women, and he ran to the tomb, where he found the strips of linen lying in an unexpected way (verse 12). It wouldn’t be long before his curiosity led to full Easter faith.
So in conclusion you may find this morning’s sermon a challenge. But what I really hope is that you find it to be a series of encouragements. Be encouraged that the Resurrection tells us God is still at work in the dark, and when the light comes we’ll see the marvellous things he’s been doing quietly.
Be encouraged that when Jesus speaks his word to us, he will keep his word. The fulfilment of his prophecies in the Resurrection show that he is trustworthy.
And be encouraged that when it comes to being his witnesses, you only need to be someone who lives in the presence of Jesus to have a credible testimony.
This Easter, let us be encouraged by our risen Lord in our faith and in our witness.
[1] John Nolland, Luke 18:35-24:53, p1193.
Big Circumstance 